New Grants Build on Past Work to Promote System Changes for Children with Special Health Care Needs, Families

PALO ALTO – Four new grants from the Lucile Packard Foundation for Children’s Health will support current grantees in building on their work to improve systems that serve children with special health care needs (CSHCN).

The grants will promote policy and program recommendations to enhance three key service systems for CSHCN: Medi-Cal, the California Children’s Services Program, and California’s Regional Centers. The funding also will leverage statewide partnerships in California, and help provide data on service disparities.

“These grantees have conducted foundational work in documenting system issues that need to be addressed to improve care for these children and their families,” said Holly Henry, the foundation’s director of its Program for Children with Special Health Care Needs. “Now we are taking the next steps by supporting grantees’ advocacy work to foster real change.”

补助金：

Oversight and Monitoring of the California Children’s Services Program
Grantee: National Health Law Program

Past grant funding to the National Health Law Program (NHeLP) supported an in-depth legal analysis that identified significant gaps in the structure of the California Children’s Services (CCS) program, which provides a range of services to children under age 21 with certain conditions. The next grant phase will address the gaps that NHeLP identified, including lack of oversight and monitoring of the CCS Program, deficient state-level policies, and challenges with the intersection between the CCS Program and Medi-Cal. The goal is to ensure that CCS operates as efficiently and equitably as possible for all children with eligible conditions.

Ensuring Effective Implementation of California’s Efforts to Reduce Regional Center Disparities
Grantee: Public Counsel

With foundation support, Public Counsel previously has documented long-standing inequities in support for children and families of color in California’s regional center system, which provides medical, therapeutic, and supportive services for children with developmental disabilities. In collaboration with partners across the state, Public Counsel has used its findings to advocate for systemic improvements in developmental disability services. With the new funds, Public Counsel will continue to press for policies that will require regional centers to take concrete steps to remedy racial, ethnic, and language disparities and to allocate regional center funding more equitably statewide.

Orange County Care Coordination Collaborative for Kids: Access to Care for Children with Special Health Care Needs – Supplement
Grantee: Children’s Hospital of Orange County Foundation

In 2019, Orange County transitioned children served by California Children’s Services (CCS), the state’s system of care for CSHCN, to Medi-Cal managed care organizations under a state initiative called the Whole Child Model (WCM). In its current grant phase, the Orange County Care Coordination Collaborative for Kids (OCC3 for Kids) and its stakeholders identified system navigation of the WCM as the primary challenge for parents and caregivers. The new funds will help complete and expand on OCC3 for Kids’ work to address system navigation issues to ease the path for families.

Designing the New Enhanced Care Management Benefit to Work for Kids in Medi-Cal
Grantee: Children Now

Children Now has successfully led advocacy efforts for family member representation in several state agencies. As the California Department of Health Care Services prepares to implement a Medi-Cal “Enhanced Care Management” (ECM) benefit for children and youth, Children Now will work to ensure that stakeholder input and family experiences inform the development of ECM policies. Children Now will coordinate with and organize child advocacy organizations across the state in an effort to strategically push for strong standards and protections for children with special health care needs, ensuring comprehensive, family- and youth-friendly care coordination policies, financial incentives, and clear oversight mechanisms.

 

###

 

露西尔·帕卡德儿童健康基金会致力于通过慈善事业改善我们社区乃至全世界所有儿童和家庭的健康状况。基金会旗下的特殊健康需求儿童项目为这项工作提供了支持。我们致力于构建更高效的医疗体系，确保提供高质量、协调一致、以家庭为中心的医疗服务，从而改善儿童的健康状况，提升家庭的生活质量。了解更多信息，请访问 lpfch.org/CSHCN。